image by Magdalena Nishe
Poem by Inny Taylor
One weekend in late spring when the bars started filling up again;
The bands started playing more:
I sat on an empty bench with an open heart
And you walked in with a neither here nor there rush
Yet you had somewhere to be; passionate people to see
But by the end of the night I only saw you,
You only saw me; you saw me–
Me waiting to be seen someday,
How’d you know I was waiting baby–how’d you know?
We laughed a month later while eating ice pops on an old futon,
That we held hands from the second we met
And we never stopped holding hands since
You found me in a time and place and a velvet skirt
And your silly grin; white tennis shoes,
Ready to fall again.
Every morning waking up, rolling over
Seeing you, smiling, closing my eyes again
Not wanting the morning to end
Then you’d every morning, wake up, roll over,
Kiss my back and sweep your arm around my waist
Under covers never wasted one moment–
Smiling, thinking, “Oh baby you found me.”
And then there was the music; playing all the time,
If it wasn’t Bobbie Gentry on the record player,
It was you snapping your fingers singing some sweet melody
Or me writing songs up in my head, flowing out from cherry chapsticked-lips.
And I remember once-upon-a-time before you were here,
Before the heat of summer came dancing in
I was someone else, and even before broken her, I was a younger her
Boiling over like an angry pot on a gas stovetop–
That moment so fragile and–
An infant flame became an adolescent fire,
The booze so warm down a thirsty soul; you in the crosshairs of old wounds,
Somewhere in the magic of a new romance, reality lies and–
I spewed the poison of a tortured heart that I swore was cured…
I miss you and it hurts waiting; aches wondering…
A silent battle almost-never fixes the crime of loud mistakes:
I wish I could but I can’t take back Saturday.
